Glacier Computing Introduces Heated Touchscreens

For years, people have searching for ways to make computers cooler, lest they burn a hole in the lap on which they’re seated. Given their noticeably icy name, one might suspect that Glacier Computer was founded on such principles.

However, in the name of true counterintuitivity, the Connecticut-based company is helping to pioneer the concept of heated touchscreens for its Everest vehicle computers, a line of tablets designed for use in forklifts, carts, pallet jacks, and other piece of heavy machinery.

The idea here is to cut down on the frozen condensation that can accrue on screens when driving back and forth between sub-zero and above freezing environments, like, say, in and out of grocery store freezers. “Customers in cold storage warehousing and involved in the manufacture of frozen food are often driving between sub-zero environments and areas above freezing,” said Everest’s director of engineering Dan Poisson. “This activity causes condensation and then a re-freezing of that condensation making the screen unusable by the operator.”